OpenAtlas

Dear Alex,

Thanks for your reply.
If we choose to use the same instance, can data from different projects/users be kept privately or hidden from each other?

Keeping data privately or hidden is not the focus of OpenAtlas. On the contrary, our cooperations are exclusively with open data projects and the idea of open science is very important for us, see our mission statement.

That being said, of course OpenAtlas itself is open source and can be used for any purposes and data doesn't have to be made public. Nevertheless, hiding data from other users isn't implemented and could also lead to several problems, like e.g. duplicates.

I totally agree with the FAIR principle, as I am currently working in NFDI4Object (National Research Data Infrastructure for Archaeological Objects). I am asking this because sometimes researchers would like to own a digital working space to store unpublished data. Some data repository service would set the limit for an embargo period. It happens to scientific data (analytical results). However, I respect what OpenAtlas is aiming for.

On a related note, if I export the whole SQL database, can I import the database to a new instance (assuming the original installation is malfunctioning)? It is like a data transfer between different instances.

Another scenario is that if the new instance contains part of the database from the old instance, will the software detect the changes automatically or will it import the same part twice? Does OpenAtlas have some sort of version control, like a Github repository?

• Topics that "just" need explaining will be added to the manual (e.g. how to organize multiple projects)
• Some might turn into issues to be implemented
• Some might turn into issues but put on the wishlist because of e.g. missing funding or available developers
• Some we might have to decline for various reasons, e.g. out of scope. But even than we will at least try to explain why

Clarifications about public data¶

• Either all data is made public via the API or none
• On presentation sites it can be implemented which data (e.g. which case study) to show via usage of the API
• Showing images is a special case because it also depends on licenses (which are reworked currently) and if IIIF is enabled

Until data isn't made public only registered users have access. Like mentioned before it is not possible to hide parts of the data from some users and it isn't planned to be implemented. If this is really needed than using separate instances would likely be a better alternative.

Export/import¶

Hint: in case you want duplicate/restore OpenAtlas instances don't forget to also copy the files in files/upload.
Exported databases can be setup/imported again. So it is possible to backup and restore or duplicate data.
There is no import script for databases, e.g. a database restore has to be done manually, see manual. That's why nothing can be "detected" which means partial databases would have to be prepared and imported manually too.

In case you have an old database and a new database with more entries which you want in the old one too, I would just replace the old with the new database.
This is assuming there was no data added in the old database which the new one doesn't know about. But in that case (new different data in the old and the new database) it would get complicated anyway.

I hope this explanations could make it a bit clearer.

Data versioning¶

There is no data versioning in OpenAtlas. The only thing tracked is when and by whom entries are created and updated.
Although I'm aware that this isn't the same, you could of course take regular "snapshots" via the database export just in case.

I apologise for my stupidity.

Should I run codes for Export SQL or Export Databse dump? or are they just step 1 and 2 for restoring the database?

No stupidity here.

Export SQL is plain text. So you can use psql to restore the database. We also have a wiki entry for that

The SQL dump is a binary file, so it is compressed. For the dump you need to use pg_restore to restore the database. We use it only under Windows. -> Wiki entry about restoring a dump

I also closed this issue to avoid mixing too much different topics. But feel free to open new ones anytime.